Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - JJ McCarthy update and good news on the injury report??? (Part 1)

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

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Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here, and you're not going to believe this. There's not horrendous news on the injury front that I'm coming to with you here tonight. Purple Insider, live show here brought to you by Fanduil. As always, we'll get to the Fandual question of the day. I actually have some emails that people have written to me that I want to get to because sometimes they can't join the live show. I get emails, DMs that have good thoughts that I want to make sure I answer.

But I want to begin with this little guy in my email called an injury report here that when I opened it up and I read it over, I thought I've seen worse recently. of course, J.J. McCarthy is not practicing, and I'll give you an update from what Kevin O'Connell said, along with some words from Carson Wentz, O'Connell on a couple of other subjects as well. I want to bring that to you. But let's go through this thing here first. So no, J.J. McCarthy, clearly, Ryan Kelly was not practicing today and neither was just in school. But Christian Derisaw was practicing in full today, as we have gotten to full Derisaw. watch and when is he going to come back? They desperately need him. I did have a good conversation with Walter Rouse today about how much he has grown over the last year or so working behind Christian Derrissau and I think he's taken huge gains through the off season and he actually went in and played pretty well outside of the holding penalty. I thought that he stepped in but it would be a tough task against Trey Hendrickson who had 17 and a half sacks last

season, not exactly the guy that you would want your inexperienced tackle versus one of the best tackles in the NFL. So we know that. And once again, Kevin O'Connell was a little bit dodgy when it came to whether Christian Derisaw is going to play. And I think through week by week, they're trying to figure it out by Friday themselves, where Darisaw is at, how comfortable he feels. And that was brought up as well by O'Connell today as he was talking about Derisaw. One line was kind of about just his feeling and where he's at. And I know that as the time goes on, we start to wonder more and more. Like, was there a setback?

I know O'Connell said that there wasn't. And he acknowledged that it's even been a little bit unique with sometimes he's limited. Sometimes he's a full participant. And O'Connell has insisted that there is no foul play to that. But the fact that he is a full participant on the first day of the week, that means we've got eyes out for tomorrow and if he's a full participant tomorrow and if he's a full participant Friday, then the chances of Christian Derisaw playing in this game continue to go up and up and up and they could really, really use Derrissau back. Also, Jeff Okuda practicing in full coming

off of his concussion. He did not play last week against Atlanta. They could have used them as a tackler. But aside from that, there wasn't a lot of passes that were thrown as Atlanta mostly stuck to their ground game against the Vikings. They were in that position all day. So Okuda misses a game where they didn't necessarily need to be in a nickel package a lot and now is trending toward coming back in a game where they likely will against a high powered passing game in Cincinnati. I'm going to still call it that because they've got the receivers. And if you don't take Jake Browning seriously. He can sneak up on you as he did in 2021 to beat the Vikings late in that game. Actually, no, 2003. Sorry, 2021 was the opener against Cincinnati.

2020, was when he beat the Vikings late in that fourth quarter game. We most remember it for the failed tush push, but also there was the T. Higgins touchdown. They resolved some things about the Vikings defense late in that game and Browning was able to execute. So they need every bit of help they could get in the secondary against this Cincinnati passing game. Also on the good news side, Andrew Van Ginkle practiced today, though he was limited, but still getting back out there after missing last week with the concussion. Harrison Smith still limited as he returns from the illness. Now, he said the other day when we spoke to him, this was last week, that the reason he didn't go on short term IR was that he did not expect it to take four weeks for him to come back, well, this is three. And as far as I can remember, I don't think Harrison Smith has

yet practiced fully. And it does get to a point where there is some concern there of like, how long is this going to go on for for Harrison Smith? Is it going on longer than we expected it to? And they could really use him back. And I thought the tackling could have used him back the other night, The leadership, the calling of the defense, all of these things, Harrison Smith still can play a very big role. So limited is not necessarily what you want to see in the ramp up today. But overall, a lot of other guys that were limited, Grenard, Donovan Jackson, Theo Jackson, Josh Oliver. That's one to watch, too, Josh Oliver. And whether he practices in full, Grenard with the oblique issue where he was down the other night, that's what happened to him.

so some to watch, but it's not unusual to see guys being banged up after a game in the first practice that they have. So we'll have some eyes on those for the rest of the week. But the big one here, of course, is Christian Derisaw practicing in full. And on the Cincinnati side, Shamar Stewart, their top draft pick, not practicing with an ankle injury. So there's that side of things. I also want to bring you what Kevin O'Connell had to say about J.I. J. McCarthy and then some other things about J.J. and the situation. Kevin, excuse me, a couple days later, giving more attention to the severity of J.J.'s Yeah, he's responding well early on to treatment and things, and, you know, he's in a boot

and kind of letting that thing settle down when he's not getting treatment, still heavily involved in meetings and installs and everything, had great energy and enthusiasm to kind of attack it in any way he can for now. And that'll be able to build and progress from there. But yeah, he's still in the early stages of it as he kind of, you know, I know from a standpoint of some of the things we're hoping early on, you know, we've seen some of that and it'll continue hopefully. So a little bit on the generic side from Kevin O'Connell there, but I'm going to mention something that I don't want to be overblown, but just part of what I do is to try to to ask people about whatever it might be going on with the Vikings and see what I can ascertain, right?

And my feeling about this injury that J.J. McCarthy sustained is that just because Adam Schaefter put out the two to four weeks timeline doesn't lock that in because the recovery is not a absolute guarantee. It's always this many weeks to this many weeks. That's how it works 100% of the time every high ankle sprain is its own snowflake and it is possible that J.J. McCarthy could be healed up enough for them to consider him to play next week. It might depend on a lot of things. I mean, it depends on how he heals up throughout this week. If he's still in the walking boot, that is a little bit maybe behind where you'd like him to be, not necessarily like at this moment, but if he was going to come back next week. But it is a possibility if that thing heals up,

if it responds really well that he could be good to go. It's also possible that Carson Wentz, if he goes out there against the Cincinnati Bengals and throws for 320 yards, looks awesome in the offense, then they would be a little more on the cautious side. And it might depend on what Carson Wentz does in this game if you get J.J. McCarthy back next week, two weeks from now. So it's the healing.

But it's also, I think the Carson Wentz, performance will make a difference here. If Wentz plays average football and they barely win against the Bengals, let's say that it's 17 to 14 he throws for 168 yards on 28 passes or something like that, then I think that they'll consider getting J.J. McCarthy back out there as fast as possible. But this team knows that there's a realistic scenario where a quarterback who everyone kind of left for dead shows up with the Minnesota Vikings and Justin Jefferson and Kevin

O'Connell and then has it click in and performs very well. And considering that J.J. McCarthy did not look like he is locked in the speed of the game yet. I think that he understands where he's supposed to go with the football. I think that he has the fight in him. He has the leadership in him. I think we've seen that. He's not going to give up. He's going to fight through an injury that he's dealing with late in the game and all those types of things. But when you have one of the slowest snap to release times, even when some of the stuff when you go back and look at it on tape was supposed to get out pretty quickly and you're having protection issues, it is a bit of a powder keg for a young quarterback.

Also, I would like to see J.J. McCarthy with Christian Derisaw back out there. But if Carson Wentz ends up with the benefit of Christian Derisaw, he might perform pretty well. And then the benefit of Jordan Addison coming back. And there's a chance that they get rolling and then the decision becomes a little bit more complex. But just in asking around a little bit, this is one of those injuries that is very hard to pin down for somebody just saying, hey, it's two to four weeks. But it might not be that long or it could end up that Carson Wentz plays well and he does not end up relinquishing the job. I mean, here in Vikings land, you just never really know when it comes to quarterbacks.

But I wouldn't a thousand percent count out the idea that he could heal up quickly just because that was the initial report. Like, these things are a moving target, kind of put it that way. I know that's not the most definitive report, but that's just, that's what I got for you, is that it's not always with a high ankle sprain, just it's this many weeks. And that's how it is. And black and white can be a little bit different than that. So it'll be something to track and monitor as we go on.

So as it pertains to Carson Wentz, though, Kevin O'Connell talked about what he saw. See, last week when McCarthy was away, having the baby, Carson Wentz ran the practice on Thursday, and O'Connell talked about that practice. Carson stepping into that practice last week was the number one guy. Just how much could you get away from that as you kind of rammed him up this week? You just kind of felt that poise and presence, even from the walkthrough to the practice. And it just kind of felt like a kind of a normal day. And I think the execution and kind of how I was pushing the group looking for the growth

from game one to game two from a procedural standpoint before the ball has ever snapped, huddle, alignment, landmarks, emotions, and details of things, his ability to absorb all that and then run the show was apparent to everybody. And I think you got a guy that, you know, I was telling the team today, I mean, you've got a guy that's played at a really high level, played a lot of football, and ultimately is at a place in his career

where I think you can really tap into a lot of that while also shaping a game plan that he's comfortable with and he can go out and have consistent success because that's, you know, really what our whole team needs right now is just in all three phases. Can we do the things? things, you know, schematically that we need to do. And there's going to be, you know, some adjustments made to fit with the personnel and what we think is best to win this game this

week. So there is Kevin O'Connell on the practice that Carson Wentz had. And Carson talked about it himself is sort of feeling pretty good, pretty comfortable getting in there as a veteran quarterback who has done that many, many times. Just to respond to a couple things you guys are saying, Adam says he's in a boot. There's no chance. It's a one. week injury. I guess we, the Purple Insider has long had a listener that is a foot doctor, and I guess we maybe need that on the show. I'm just telling you from having conversations with some folks about this injury and about where J.J. McCarthy is at, that it's not an impossibility, but these things can change quickly. And there are players who have left games and walked out of the stadium in

boots and then played the next week. Like, that's happened many times. So we'll see. I'm not saying he's fine. I'm not saying like, you know, sources tell Purple Insider, he's fine. But I think that if the progression ends up being fast and good in his rehab, that it's possible he could be available as soon as next week and it doesn't end up being this two to four weeks total, that when you get that information, you're taking a guess at it right after

the injury has happened. and right after it's initially whatever, just swelled up or something, but it's a hard one to pin down. That's all I'm saying about that injury. Not a foot doctor, not an ankle doctor, not any kind of doctor. But we do have one that listens.

So if he's here, you could chime in, okay? Or if any of the rest of you work on ankles or feet as your profession, please let me know. As far as cause and effect says what is going on with C.D. and Harry, why didn't they put them on IR? I think the reason why they didn't put them on IR is because they weren't sure. And with a lot of injuries, it's just like we're talking about with the high ankle sprain. A lot of injuries and a lot of recoveries, you just have to wait and see. This always goes for concussions too.

And this is why over the years, Kevin O'Connell has backed off quite a bit from I think he used to early in his coaching career kind of spin pretty positive on injuries. Hey, we expect this guy to be back in a couple of weeks. And then it'd be a couple weeks. And we'd be going, okay, didn't you say this guy was going to be back in a couple weeks? And I think he got a little frustrated by that. So it's why he's more vague these days, rightfully so, because it's very hard to put an exact date on someone recovering from an ACL. They have to be fully ready.

And this does track with the way that the Vikings handled Christian Darrasaw with the fact, I'm sorry, T.J. Hawkinson, like the Christian Darrasaw injury is similar where he came back to practice last year, Hawkinson did. And he practiced, remember before the Lions game, and we all kind of went, ooh, is it going to be a revengey revenge? And then it wasn't. And then it was the Rams game. And he didn't play in that one.

And we were like, it's going on here. get him back on the field and then finally they did. And he showed you at times why it's hard to recover from ACL surgery. So I think that that's why is maybe that they weren't 100% sure. Also, you don't want it to be ready in week three and then have to sit there and be like, sorry, can't play you, even though you're good to go. And with Harrison Smith, I think it's the same sort of thing where it's the ramp back up from this health issue that he's had.

but getting back to 100% feeling comfortable going out there and playing a full game. If you've gone through something over a long period of time, like he was away from the team for what, a couple of weeks, it might not be the easiest thing to get back to 100% and play in the NFL. So I don't think that they really knew when it came to time to put them on IR or not. And that's kind of why we are where we are. Speaking of IR, Aaron Jones is on IR, which means Cam Acres is back, as we all predicted in the off season. And Kevin O'Connell talked about what that backfield is going to look like now with Aaron Jones out and Aker's here.

What do you see behind Jordan Mason at running back? Do you think Xavier Scott would be next to him or Cam Acres? Yeah, I think, you know, Zay has been, Zay Scott's been a guy we've been pretty darn excited about. and just ended up, you know, in that last preseason game, which what I think would have been kind of the exclamation point on what was a great training camp for him. So we're excited. He's healthy.

He's ready to kind of absorb some of that loss of such an impactful player like Aaron Jones. And Jordan clearly has already, you know, shown his ability to be a, you know, a heavy runner, yards after contact, all those things. And the encouraging thing like we expected about him was going to be, the multi-facet to his game from some of the great clips we've seen of pass protection to, you know, catching the football, whatever it may be. We've got a pretty, you know, I'm not sure we could have more confidence in Jordan as a potential kind of bell cow kind of back.

And then knowing we've got the skill set of Zay and then getting a chance to bring Cam back here as well, somebody who's familiar with our offense clearly. And so there you go. Jordan Mason, the bell cow back going forward, but also it sounds like Xavier Scott is going to be R.B2, he is going to have to play. I mean, even if you want to play Jordan Mason, the majority of the game, it's pretty hard to play a guy every single snap. He played over 50 snaps four times last year, had another game with 47. So, well, if they want to be on the field this week, I guess a full workload last week wouldn't have been that hard for just about anybody.

But if they want to have their usual 60 plays, maybe you have Jordan Mason out there for 50 of them and mix and match. Maybe there's something that you want to do with Xavier Scott. I mean, this is a former wide receiver caught the ball extremely well in training camp and it's possible that like, hey, next man. It's sort of like with Miles Price, where you go, you know what? The guy's never played in the NFL before, but he's got some talent. It's kind of a baller.

Go play football and see what happens. And I'm intrigued by Xavier Scott. I was kind of pounding the Xavier Scott table. early in training camp like I'm thinking that there's something here and I also wondered as O'Connell was talking if he was confirming to us a little bit if he hadn't had the ankle injury during the last preseason game I wonder if they would have had him instead of Ty Chandler on the roster but the Vikings down to Jordan Mason Xavier Scott and Cam Acres on the roster now there's a little intrigue there but if you wanted to I saw mama ask why why don't they use

Mason more well they're gonna now because they have No other choice. One more thing to bring you from TCO Performance Center today. Carson Wentz spoke with us. Very excited about being a Viking, this guy. He was talking about coming down to the Metro Dome as a kid and, you know, waving the towel and rooting for all these players that he's walking through the facility and seeing.

So it's a nice little moment for Carson Wentz. And he said that he felt that jogging out of the tunnel last week. Also spoke to us about J.J. McCarthy and just his general feeling about getting back onto the field. What's something that you think a young quarterback like JJ is going through right now? Yeah, I mean, I talked to him quite a bit when he found out. And shoot, I found out just before he all found out the other day. So I knew he was banged up a little after the game, didn't know to what extent.

But I just told him, hey, career is long. The career is long. And this might feel like, you know, so much going on right now. But I just told him, hey, stay the course. Stay the course. Just reminding him, like, hey, trust your faith. God's got a plan. Like, he's writing that story.

And he's been great. He's in good spirits and hopefully he gets better soon. Is anything like this in your career compared to what you're going to this week? Not really, no. It's very different. I'm not going to lie. It's exciting, though. You know, it's fun to go out there and sit through install meetings knowing, you know, this is, you know, this is a chance personally that it's been a couple years since I've had, you know, like I said, a meaningful start. And so I've been staying ready behind the scenes, doing whatever I can. And like I said, it's been fast-paced, just trying to learn this offense, learn these guys, all the things. But so to answer your question, it is quite a bit different. But at the same time, once we went out there in practice, it was a Wednesday practice, you know,

and I kind of fell right back into that same routine I've had for 10 years now. How ready are you? I feel great. Physically, I feel great. Mentally, I feel in a good spot. The coaches have done a great job, just helping me try and grasp this as quick as I can. I enjoyed the skepticism in Mark Craig's voice. How ready are you, Carson?

My goodness. He's had a couple weeks. Veteran quarterback, he's been around, and I think they'll be ready to go. It just kind of depends on can they protect him? Is the first part of this is Darisaw back? Can he get on the same page with Michael Juergens if it is not Ryan Kelly and would highly advise Ryan Kelly to take all the time that he needs with his concussion

because there is a life after football. But, you know, you never know with different forms of concussions and how that goes. So we'll see on Ryan Kelly didn't practice today, but Michael Juergens likely to be in there. I think it helps Juergens a ton to have a veteran quarterback who will understand the protections, be confident making the changes and running the operation at the line of scrimmage and so forth. So that does help mitigate it a little. It really comes down to that left tackle because if Derisaw is in there, okay one guy's missing from the line you're fine but if he's not and then you're talking about feeling

like a mash unit you're talking about sandwiching donovan jackson in between a guy who's really never played and a guy who's really never played and then it's three guys who have really never played that's not what you're looking for no matter who is at quarterback and was just going over some carson wents numbers last night a little more in detail the one thing that stands out to me about Carson Wentz, and this isn't a hot take or anything, is he could throw it downfield. He can sling the ball. Is he the most flawless executor of an offense when it comes to the underneath and intermediate stuff?

No, he was below average the last time that he played. But in most of his career, when he's pushing the ball downfield, which we know Kevin O'Connell wants to do, he has been successful. So, if you have Derisaw back, you can push it down the field. the field. And if you don't, with Trey Hendrickson over there, pretty unlikely that he's going to have a ton of time to do that. So let me get to a couple of your comments here. And then I want to read some emails because, again, not everybody gets a chance to jump in on the live show. And I feel like I don't want to leave anybody out with things that they have to ask. Fanduel question

of the day is the over under four Sunday's game is 41.5 points at minus 110 on Fandul. How many points does Carson Wentz have to score for the Vikings to win the game? Carson Wentz going to start first meaningful game in quite a long time. Actually, since 2022 for Wentz, how many points does he have to score with the over under set at 41.5? Let me know what you think there. And I see Harry saying every quarterback who started games for us in the regular season that wore number 11 took us deep into the play. playoffs. That is, uh, you know, it said, those are facts. Those are facts, Harry, Joe Cap, uh, Wade Wilson, Dante call pepper, now Carson Pence. They're just facts. You're just spitting facts.

Uh, Jay, I don't know if there's a correlation. I'm going to guess probably not, but number 11 is a pretty common number for quarterbacks. Uh, didn't, did Nick Mullins wear the same number as Tom Brady? I think he probably did. Uh, Jay Deasy says, uh, saw stat that JJ held onto the ball, the third longest behind Williams and Goff, don't think the O line is that bad, just that he holds on to the ball too long. Derisaw back this week will help. So it was a tale of two games. In both of them, he held the ball too long, especially against the Atlanta Falcons. I also thought from watching it back, looking at the grades, looking at the pressures,

that the Vikings' offensive line definitely earned a few of those pressures that got to J.J. McCarthy. one of them was just a flat-out miscue by Brian O'Neill. He got tagged with a sack. But when you say it's a miscue, you also have to give the other team credit because they have good players and good schemes too. So the strip sack, Jeremiah went over this yesterday, and Andrew Kramer actually asked Brian O'Neill about it and got the answer, which was the same as what Jeremiah Searle said,

that he was just fooled, that the Falcons looked like they were sending a blitzer. He dropped back when Aaron Jones went out, the backfield, and that guy ended up free. Now, McCarthy's got to be aware of that, but, you know, that was kind of what happened there. Sometimes you just get tricked by the other team. I've talked about that a lot. In recent years, there's just way more stunts, way more complicated blitzes, way more

tomfoolery going out over there on the defensive side. If you go back and watch a game from 10 years ago even, it's a lot of defenders standing right here. Maybe one guy is showing blitz and he comes. Now you see everybody moving around all the time. That Amazon thing that they have where it tries to identify Blitzers is pretty cool, but also kind of shows you how much is going on over there. And the Falcons just got them on a few of those.

They got Donovan Jackson on a stunt. And then Justin's school got flat out beat. And when you combine that with holding onto the ball too long, that's where you have as many sacks as J.J. McCarthy took. So I think it was a group effort between, backup offensive lineman, really good defensive strategy. I mean, if you're Rahim Morris, you did a smart thing. Let's make this team with their backup center in there halfway through the game,

their left tackle who's struggling, their rookie left guard. Let's make them sort this stuff out. So that's why they need to get back to 100%. So in that particular game, it was both. And I think that Carson Wentz should be able to get rid of the ball faster than J.J. McCarthy, especially in the quick game area, if there is such a thing on this team, just identifying where it's supposed to go.

I wouldn't be shocked if you see T.J. Hawkinson get eight catches or something like that because I think he's been there and McCarthy was not getting there. And when everything's a little slow, that's how you end up with sacks, unless your offensive line is absolutely awesome. And they were not. They were not awesome. I thought they were really good against Chicago outside of the left tackle.

but in Atlanta, it was a little bit of everybody was struggling there. So let me get to a couple of these emails, and then we will get to your questions, comments. And then we're going to have Sam Monson join the show to break down the McCarthy-Wentz situation. And I did want to say something funny about, you know, the last couple days because it's been many times that we've gone through this together, my friends. And if you're new to the show, well, you know what the, the Vikings have dealt with over the last decade, and that's how long I've been covering the team, so we've kind of seen every bit of it. But I was kind of laughing today because I got a few different emails. And one of them told me to calm down that I was overreacting to everything.

And another one said, thanks for being level-headed. And I was like, which one is it? Which one is it? It's probably both. It's probably both at different times. And I think when you have a situation like this, you try to go over every different scenario, every option, how the team is going to handle it, what could happen. And I think that everything is on the table from McCarthy coming back next week and being good and leading this team to the playoffs to Wentz being great and it being another one of those random seasons. And then Harry is adding Carson Wentz to that name of number 11s that have taken the Vikings somewhere. It's always a roller coaster ride with a blindfold on when you are following the Minnesota Vikings.

So I just wanted to say that about all the different notes and comments that I've gotten over the last couple of days is none of us knows where this is going to go. But when we're talking about it every single day, we're trying to look ahead, trying to figure it out, trying to project what is going to happen next. Okay, so a couple of emails here. Ted sent me an email said, what are the chances Max Brosmer will have if slash when Carson Wentz plays at or below replacement level. So with Carson Wentz, they are going to want him to play as long as he needs to.

And if he struggles and McCarthy is back healthy, then you will see J.J. McCarthy. They're not going to go to the third string undrafted free agent rather than go back to the guy who's supposed to be the franchise quarterback. And I don't think they're going to pull Wentz midgame. It would have to be four interceptions. They'd have to be down by 28 points in the second. the fourth quarter, then maybe you try to get Max Brosmer a couple snaps. That said, I do really like Max Brosmer as an NFL quarterback. And if this thing got off the rails toward the end of the season, I'd be curious for Max

Brosmer to start a game. Maybe, I don't know, the last game of the season or something, if this just goes completely bad, because there's one thing that I've noticed about Max Brosmer, and it's what we were just talking about, the guy gets rid of the football. He processes extremely well. I think he's much more physical tools-wise, a backup quarterback in this league, which is a great compliment. It's extremely hard to do.

Did anybody watch college football this week? Hard to be an NFL quarterback in any capacity. But I think this is the Carson Wentz or JJ McCarthy show. If Brosmer gets in there, though, I do have some confidence that he could play. I don't think he's just going to go in and fall apart. But I would be very surprised if Wentz was just struggling. and they said, okay, it's Brosmer time. That would be very surprising.

You just don't see that anymore. Back in the day, you used to, like way back, you know, 80s, early 90s, team would just pull their quarterback. They'd be like, this guy is not working today. Next quarterback, it's a little different now. Let's see, Rail Tyeard game emailed me and said, is there any way KOC could consider giving JJ the Lamar Jackson rookie treatment, wondering if sprinkling JJ into the lineup for certain plays or drives could be away,

to get him to continue to develop in the coming weeks, well, putting him on a pitch count to reduce risk of re-injury, similar to Flacco and Lamar. Well, actually, the New York Giants have been doing this with Jackson Dart. He's gotten in a couple of plays, and they've just sort of randomly tossed him in the game to try to get him a few snaps and just, I guess, do exactly what you're talking about,

implement him a little, develop him a little, just get the feel for playing in the NFL. that doesn't sound to me like something that Kevin O'Connell would do. I don't think it's the craziest thought you've ever had a rail tie yard game, but I think that it sounds a little bit like something a team would do when they're not really competing for anything. And I know the Ravens that year, they made the playoffs with Lamar Jackson. So, you know, maybe they were.

But Lamar was a little different of a dude, like more of a guy you could throw in at wide receiver, more of a guy who can run all the time. time zone read not just once that surprises the other team i would not really be for that if they're serious about winning games the giants aren't serious about winning games they're trying to build the team for jackson dart into the future because that's where they're at in their timeline they're trying to develop malik neighbors into an elite wide receiver and just stay alive and keep their jobs that's a little bit different from where the minnesota vikings are right now So I'd be surprised if that was something that happened.

Evan says, are we seeing KOC avoiding the quick game, quick passing game, again with a banged up O line feels reminiscent to the Rams playoff game and week 18 against the Lions. Yeah, so the last year was a little bit hard for Kevin O'Connell to change his stripes in those games because they had had so much success. Even when the offensive line was struggling toward the end of the year, they were still succeeding. The Packers, the Packers graded well in their pass rush against Sam Darnold in week 17, and yet Darnold just performed really well.

And that was the regression that hit hard was that Darnold had been actually pretty good under pressure. The play against Seattle, the game against Arizona, where he leads them back against the Falcon. Some of those plays were under pressure, and then it just hit like a ton of bricks. But I would change the offense entirely and just, you know, he's not a future. teller, you know, or whatever, is that a thing? Future teller. Is that what they call them a fortune teller? He's not a fortune teller. He's not going, I sense the lions will have all the answers. And the lions really didn't. That was actually just Sam Darnold, I think, overhyped and missing throws and them freaking out in the biggest moment. And I think that was that. And with the Rams, there wasn't a counter punch. This year they were supposed to have a counterpunch. They haven't had it yet so far. But how much is that on the quarterback, as we were talking about not getting the ball out very quickly?

I think that they've wanted quick game. And that takes anticipation. It takes quick reads. It takes quick feet and quick eyes. It's not something we've seen from JJ McCarthy yet because it's his first time doing this. So even though quick game makes sense in your head for a young quarterback, it actually takes longer, I think, to get than rollouts, play actions, where McCarthy's made a bunch of really good throws. where it's been that down the field 15 to 20 yard type of area. That's where all of his best throws have been because those are you can drop back,

you can set yourself, you get a little more time and space, take your hitch and throw as opposed to, and you can kind of see it breaking open as opposed to one, two, three, bang. And then you have to trust something. So I think it's probably that. But this is always going to be a downfield offense. That's just who Kevin O'Connell is and what he believes in. and I want to tell you about friends over at Hymns who can help you out if you're feeling a little frustrated, maybe you're in denial, maybe you're down about where you're at with the old hairline.

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Hymns.com slash purple insider. Individual results may vary see website for important safety information. Christian says please do a deep dive with someone. in the know that can explain why the Vikings are so bad at QB sneaks. The Eagles convert five in a quarter, and it feels like we haven't converted one in a decade. I feel you, man. I feel you.

I mean, this one was just dropped. This should have been fine. I think that the offensive line had enough initial slam forward to just stick the ball over or jump. But instead, he fumbled it, and then you're not going to get it back and get a first down. but it's a good question. With the Bengals and Jake Browning in town,

the famous Brandon Powell Tush Push, you know, they should get Miles Price to do that this week. Although I don't think Carson Wentz needs his tush pushed. He's a big fella. Maybe that's, I think that could be what it is. I mean, that was McCarthy's first try. Last year, they converted a few last year with Sam Darnold. And Kirk Cousins was not a big dude.

And I think he would get pushed back sometimes. He wasn't the best at running. He didn't have any explosiveness, strength. Like, what we don't realize about Jalen Hertz, well, and the Eagles cheat, as we saw last week, it was just, just cheating. They were going before the snap. I don't know what to say. Like, that was just, how do you not call that?

I don't know. But Jalen Hertz is a freak when it comes to his leg strength. The dude squats an insane amount. He's really, really strong. He was basically a running back at times at Oklahoma. Yeah, you don't have that. and Nick Mullins sure as heck wasn't that. That's why you got Jordan Mason, my friends.

Let's see. Two more quick emails. Richard said J.J. McCarthy had a kid three days before the game. Yes, he has had seven bad quarters of football, but that doesn't mean he's done. The seven out of eight quarters argument is in its nature based on two games. That is the math. Richard, that's true. Richard says, I was a zombie for at least a few weeks before I was able to get some sleep after my kid was born,

just because the kid is starting in the NFL doesn't mean he is immune, he will be fine. I don't think Wentz will play good enough to create the, quote, political issue. Maybe I just don't care as much as these other Vikings fans. I have a bit of empathy from being a father with young kids, but people need to take a chill pill. So I don't know what to do with that, Richard, because a lot of people have had kids before and played football. And you still also, even if you were very tired after having your kid, and I'm sure J.J. McCarthy was too. There's a lot at stake and you have a job to do. And I don't think, I think we can have empathy and say, man, that's a tough week. Short week coming back,

Monday night football. You have this huge life event. And we can be understanding that he doesn't have a lot of experience. So this isn't like her cousins doing it or it isn't like someone who's Philip Rivers who did it 15 times or whatever and knew exactly how to go about it. It's very different. He's very young. And that's why as far as your chill pill, that's why I said after the game that as much as I was concerned about multiple things, I also felt like you need to just fight through these things with a quarterback like this and that there's going to be some very high moments, some very low moments with someone who's inexperienced. And that even goes to inexperience dealing with life stuff and then playing football because I promise

you there's been a lot of guys inside that locker room who have had life stuff going on and they got to go and they got to do their job and there's no excuses right but at the same time we understand that this is the nature of the beast it's the life you chose it's the life everybody was on board for until probably the third quarter and then they went wait let me off this ride like no you bought the tickets you and me and all of us said this is the right decision to go about this but then when you know we start going down and you know we're getting the G force we're like no so I think there's been a lot of that I also think that when we spent the offseason seeing good things from J.J. McCarthy and fans have had to wait so long for him and saw so

little of him in the preseason you think about it how many human beings actually saw j j mccarthy throw more than the footballs that he threw in preseason a couple of thousand because it just the people who came to training camp and saw him for a day and then a handful of us and this teammates and that's it uh and then the whole state sees him for just a few preseason games really just a few preseason snaps so there's a creation of building up this this perfect joe montana quarterback who is the kid that just grabs the bull by the horns and leads the team. And even though he's got some tough moments, he's Jim McMahon out there. Well, sometimes that's going to be true.

And other times he's going to throw the ball in the dirt. And that's how it's going to be until he gets comfortable playing in the NFL. And the only way to do it is to play. But they have to figure that out on the fly as they're trying to get to the playoffs. That's what makes this whole thing tricky. last let's see i got i got two more two more emails this one from bryant says i refuse to believe that after eight quarters jj isn't better than nick mullins josh jobs or case keenham or any of the other quarterbacks of the recent past he will get his chance to prove that he's good maybe he's only

derrick car level but i know he's not a failure or a bust i'm also disappointed by a year that feels like another can we just have a steady answer at quarterback where's are Philip Rivers, I'm gradually leaning toward the disappointment end of the spectrum when I see how this year is heading already. So a couple different things there. We don't know what he's going to become. We don't know. Is he better than Nick Mullins or Josh Dobbs? Like, well, yeah, he's more talented for sure. And you're confident that he won't be a failure. Anybody can be a failure. Anybody can be a success. If Tom Brady can be the best. but also Peyton Manning can be the best number one pick sixth round pick a lot of its circumstances

health is a lot of it like a lot goes into being Philip Rivers to have it work out um I came out of training camp and I think I probably said that I was confident it wasn't going to be an entire season of just terrible quarterback play and I would still say that about J.J. McCarthy even though he had a very bad night against the Atlanta Falcons that I was pretty sure. with the supporting cast, I probably said last week when he was ranked 32nd by my friend Stephen Ruiz and everybody got mad at Stephen. I think I said there's no way he's going to be 32nd. The supporting cast is just too good. And then he kind of played like the 30 second best quarterback for a night. But for the entire season, if he gets back and he plays, I think that

he'll come around and he'll turn a corner. It's just when that I don't know. None of us are going to know. And we never really do. But what you're feeling is what a lot of people I think we're feeling the last couple days, which is like not this again, another one of these seasons. And you guys know they'll be in the race. You know that they're not just going to curl up and go away and go three and 14. This is not going to happen. That's not the Minnesota Vikings. It's not O'Connell. It's not Flores. It's not this team. But it could be one of those seasons where you still feel like you don't have the answer. And maybe that is just as hard or even harder than a season that goes completely down the tank.

It actually might be for a lot of you. You would actually prefer a season that goes completely sideways because then you get answers versus one that is kind of fun and you make the playoffs with a quarterback that you didn't expect it. Well, you've seen that enough times before. And that's not what you're looking for. Okay, last question via email. And I appreciate everybody reaching out here that, you know,

can't jump on the show. feel free to shoot me DM email. Bill said from preseason observations, is this how you picture the defense looking, Ben don't break? So far, they have a very good EPA per play against the pass and poor EPA per rush,

which checks out for the way that they constructed on paper. Personally, I pictured more of a stifling three and out machine, but I guess they've been consistently playing from behind. Yes and no, they've looked more failable than I expected. And that's what you're getting at is they have looked a little bit more failable than I thought, especially in the secondary against Chicago, where there were open opportunities. I expected them to give up more run yards. I didn't expect 200 yards to be John Robinson. And it just feels more on shaky ground than it did last year, where they just seemed like you roll the ball out and they're going to give you a chance to win every single week.

week. They played a really good team, but I don't know that the Falcons are a Super Bowl type of team. They played a really good running back who made a lot of great cuts, made a lot of great reads, made a lot of, you know, broken tackles and took advantage of his blocking. DeAndre Swift didn't really do that in the first week. Where I was concerned, though, is I saw a chart from, I think it was football insights on Twitter. Let me check and make sure I got that right. I think so. I think that's who it was. Let me see. have football insights on Twitter. I saw a chart that just showed the PFF coverage and PFF pass rush grades so far,

and neither one of them is good for the Vikings through two games. That's not what you expected. You expected them to be absolutely nasty up front, which they were against Chicago, but they couldn't get a hold of Caleb Williams. The coverage was not good against Chicago. And then the coverage was good against Atlanta, but the run defense was poor. No, it hasn't been to the point where I thought, it was going to be but you make a good point if you have every single time you go out there

three and out three and out hey it's third and two you can't get it you got to punt you fail on fourth down you give them the ball at the 40 yard line it's a lot harder to play football that way and one thing that always bothers me in football analysis is that these two things are tied together how the offense plays matters with how the defense plays and vice versa Like, they affect each other. And if one of them is lopsided, the other one's going to be impacted. That happens all the time in the NFL where you'll have a defense that might be the highest graded by PFF, but the team has given up the 15th most points.

And you're like, what? Why is PFF grading them so well? If they've given up the 15th most points, oh, yeah, their offense stinks. And they're punning the ball away all the time. You can't have your defense out there for, you know, 10 minutes more than your offense every game. or they're just not going to be that good, no matter who's out there. So I think it's a number of different factors. Plus, they've just, they've changed.

They, and they're going to have to adapt. They have changed the way they play. It matters that Cashman isn't in there. He's a great run-stopping linebacker. I think Eric Wilson is not. Wilson's a good player, but he's not the same as Cashman. Cam Bynum was a great, great player. Got $15 million a year.

He's making an impact in Indy, not having Harrison Smith, not having Van Ginkle. Like, yeah, no. that's not exactly the defense that we expected. So really, really good questions. Really, really good questions. So let me get back to the chat now. And I had asked you guys earlier about the Fandual question of the day, which was the over under for Sunday's game on Fandul, 41.5 points.

And that is leaning toward the under minus 110. How many points does Carson Wentz have to get for the Vikings to win? How many points does Mr. Wentz have to lead the Vikings to in order for them to win the game? And let me see, VA Vikings going with the under there. Jay Deasy says 24, Neal's got 21, cause and effect 24, Mark has got 24, son of beavers 31. So you're giving Jake Browning a lot of credit. Dwayne goes 28. I would say 24 is a good answer.

and VA Viking says the defense is going to get better, but the offense remains a question mark. And my thing would be if the offense doesn't get better, then it's going to be a question mark on the defense too, if they're just out there all the time. So let's see. DAC, DACQ, says, when can we start questioning some of the other coaches?

Feels like the O-line coach might be part of the problem, for example. So, you know, you go back before Chris Cooper and where, they were at as an O line for years pretty consistently finishing by the PFF grades as one of the worst offensive lines in the league. And last year before Derisaw got hurt, they were one of the best. And in 2023, they actually graded very strongly, despite some of the weaknesses, but that was Dobbs and that was Mullins. But that actually helped both of those guys perform, is that they had Darisaw playing at extremely high level, O'Neill. And they had come together and been okay, at least, 2022, it was a little more leaky, I think, with Ezra Cleveland and Ed Ingram and, of course,

you know, Garrett Bradbury. But I think that Cooper has done a good job overall bringing these guys together. But there's backup tackles, left tackle, there's a reason why the hierarchy in the NFL of pay goes quarterback, edge rusher, receiver, left tackle. It's one of the highest paid positions in the league because you kind of can't do much. as an offense, without a good left tackle. And you've seen it these last two weeks. If your quarterback is dropping back and right behind him is somebody jumping on his back in two and a half seconds or less, it's very, very hard to thrive.

And there's no coaching that. There's no like, hey, Chris Cooper, why didn't you just tell him to do something else? That's hard to do. Hi, buddy. Buddy's going to need to go out soon. So I've got an interview with Sam Monson from Check the Mike podcast. But you got to wait, buddy. I got a few more questions to answer before we, we let you out.

Can you wait? He'll be okay. He can make it for a few more minutes. 19 points from enemy cap. So you're really not thinking that the defense is going to give up much. I think you should take Jake Browning seriously. I mean, he's been in that system for a couple years. He doesn't have much of an arm.

And you could turn the ball over against. Jake Browning. He threw three interceptions last time out. I think he turned the ball over a couple times against the Vikings in 2023, but he's got great receivers. He knows the offense and he can get the ball out. Actually, I was listening to Sam Monson and Steve Palazzolo today. Talk about how Jake Browning can get the ball out quickly and that he's, he actually is snapped to release is very fast. So that's something that the Vikings will have to deal with as they try to rush the passer and create turnovers is that he is going to, you know, get it out faster. Bruno says who will be the starting outside linebackers for week three.

The fact that Van Ginkle was able to practice today makes me think that Van Ginkle is going to be in there along with Dallas Turner. But, you know, looking at how they used Van Ginkle in week one was kind of interesting. Like he wasn't just in a traditional outside linebacker spot. He was doing a lot of different things. in the game. He was playing at linebackers sometimes, lining up on the same side as Dallas Turner in that game. So their usage will now kind of be worth noting of where does Dallas Turner line up, where does Van Ginkgo line up. But I'm assuming as of right now if he's back

at practice that he's got a really good chance to play this weekend. And I mentioned this last night, but there were times where I was very impressed with Dallas Turner and there were times where I was disappointed in Dallas Turner. There were a couple times where he really worked Kyle Pitts on the edge. And there was another time where, you know, Pitts really took him out of a play and, and really shouldn't have a tight end taking him out of a play like that. That's more of a past catching tight end. So there's work to do there for Turner.

The sack was nice. There was another pressure that was really good. I still think we're on kind of wait and see type of mode for Dallas Turner. But I think we know he's going to play a lot. that's for sure um jason says who's the backup to jordan mason i think that's going to be saviour scott the way that k o c talked that sounded to me like that was going to be a Xavier scott which you know for those of you who watched a lot of preseason you're familiar with him he's he's a big guy and he's got some bursts to him he's got good hands i don't know if they want

him in their past protecting but they were very high on Xavier scott during uh the preseason like surprisingly high on somebody like that who had not played in the NFL at any point before, but I think they wanted him to be R.B3 all along. Mama says, I miss watching Mullins throw for 400 yards. I will say it was entertaining. It was definitely entertaining. That is for sure. It was.

So let's see. Nick says all of JJ's preseason quick game throws were to Jordan Addison and Lucky Jackson. and hard to have chemistry when you don't have reps. Good point. That's a good point. Nobody had better chemistry with him than Jordan Addison. No question. And that's why if he is ready to play next week and Derisaw is ready to go.

And let's just say, one of you said 19 points. Let's say they win 1917. Carson Wentz isn't really all that good. They find a way to survive and you go, okay, you're, hey, you're two and one. You're in this, right? You got a season. and McCarthy is healthy or healthy enough to play against Pittsburgh. Okay, off you go.

Then you get Jordan Addison back. And if Derisaw is back, it's a different story. It just is. It is. Like we talk about how poor it was against Atlanta. There's no question. There's no silver lining there. But at the same time, he didn't have his favorite wide receiver.

And he didn't have someone to draw any attention away from Justin Jefferson. I think that Addison at least makes the opponents think about it. and there's not so much of that with Jalen Naylor. So Addison coming back, okay, sorry, that's good. World Debt Now says, we're waiting for Addison to come back so we can tush push. That's funny. That's very good. When is C.J. Hamm coming back?

I think he is eligible to come off in week four off the IR and the expectation is that he's going to be able to play. They have missed a little bit of that, like in pass protection. C.J. Ham because they use C.J. Ham a lot over these last couple years in key pass protection downs, even when they had Aaron Jones. And they were not able to do that these last couple of, uh, these last couple of weeks. Um, Mama says the unofficial fan dual question. Do you think Brosmer will see playing time this season? I think it's possible that he could get into a game. It's, I mean, look, who knows? Carson Wentz could get hurt on the first series and it's

Max Brosmer time and then he could you never know like we've seen every every permutation in NFL history of backup quarterbacks coming in taking people places you never know you never know so I mean if you were going over under 0.5 passes for Max Brosmer I'd probably take the over that they're going to get them in at some point so uh Eric says not everyone thought this was the right decision the majority yes but not all so reliving that, it's just too early because there were a few people that, you know, reached out to me in whatever way, people I know or listeners who were like, hey, remember when everyone was just destroying you for saying it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if Sam Darnold came

back? And well, that's true. Well, that's true. I also said once the decision was made, this is the way they have to go because they have to build the roster this way through free agency, as some of you have occasionally pointed out, they don't have a bunch of young draft picks who are stepping up into superstar roles at this point. And that means that they have to spend in free agency to build this roster or through trades, like with Jordan Mason. And it would have been very hard to do if they kept Sam Darnold because he wasn't going to sign a contract. And I guess there was a world where you signed Darnold and trade McCarthy. I don't think anybody wanted that to happen.

There were very few people on the side of the Aaron Rogers thing. I was completely against that. But as far as the darn old thing goes, once it was settled, it felt like you can never really make that fit anyway with the contract, franchise tagging him, and then with the fan base as well. Because once the myth of J.J. McCarthy, and we'll see if it becomes reality eventually, but the, I should say, you know, mythology, like building him up into this larger than life franchise quarterback in everybody's heads last year, if Darnold played the way

that he did, that McCarthy played against the Falcons they lost, the whole stadium would have been cheering for JJ by the end of the game. And then you're already there at week two. I mean, heck, that might have been happening in Chicago for the handful of fans that made the trip in the first half. So I don't think that would have been a happy situation either. But you're right. Like there were some folks who wanted to see Sam Darnold come back after a, you know, very good season last year. Mama says, what is your ideal scenario for the rest of the season with the way it plays out? McCarthy gets better and takes back the job from Wentz after a few weeks. I mean, the most ideal situation would be that Carson Wentz goes two and O in the next two games.

And then over in London, J.J. McCarthy steps back in after two decent games for Wentz, but not life changing. McCarthy steps back in and he kind of has it click in a little bit and there's still some grind to go. But by the time they start hitting the really tough teams, you do have Philadelphia, the Chargers, but that he's got the by week to go through. And he comes out of that, you know, just making progress and giving them a chance to win. And then by the end of the season, you're in the hunt. You got a chance to make the playoffs.

McCarthy comes through and gets you there. then you see who you match up with and how things work out. That's probably the best case scenario right now. I think it's off the table that J.J. McCarthy just flips a switch and is like the best quarterback in the league. I think we can all be realistic and say that there's development here that has to happen. But maybe these two weeks are a mental reset for him. It's just a lot to take in over the first couple of weeks, step back a little bit, and then

come back in and perform overall well enough to keep them in the play. off race. I think right now that's probably the best case scenario that you would be going into the playoff saying, hey, he's got a chance. If he steps up, he's got a chance. Or you'd be going into even next year with saying, hey, we know we can play. Maybe it didn't work out perfectly, you know, in 2025, but he can play. That to me is the best case scenario. Let's see. not sure how exactly to pronounce the name fanny i think it is i think you've told me before sorry about that uh didn't put cd and harrison smith on i are because they need to practice to get ready and they can't practice with the team if they're on i are yeah they need they need

the ramp up time you can right you can work on the side i don't know every single rule with that when it comes to i are you're probably right that they would have to work on the side and they're able to practice, but I also think that it just had to do with they thought they could get him back before week four. That is another part of it. But I don't know exact rules for how much you can have a guy do when he's on IR. I think if you, what is there, there is a, it's like a 21 day. So I think that there is a, I believe it's a 20, trying to think how many days it is, a 21 day when you are going to take someone off of IR that they do have a ramp up period. So that's built into the rules because that was how it worked with Hawkinson.

Then it was like getting closer to the, you have to take them off IR. So they would have been able to still do that. It's just that you wanted to be able to activate them or have them ready if it's week two, if it's week three. I just think they really didn't know. You know, just because they're the medical professionals doesn't mean that they have all the perfect answers. Errant's confidence level that Wentz can get Jefferson 10 targets.

Well, unless he wants to go to Jay. then he better. I hope everybody knows what I'm talking about. I just post games for years every time that Jefferson doesn't get 10 targets. I say someone needs to go to jail now. And the last two weeks, someone has been jailed after the game for not getting just the Jefferson the targets. That's something I think he can.

I mean, go back, look at 2021 with Michael Pittman. This dude just threw the ball, Michael Pittman like every play. I think he had 138 targets or something or, or a hundred and something like that. He is willing to throw to his number one target. I guarantee that. And that's where when there's a discussion of like if Wentz gives them a better chance to win right now, he kind of does because he has a history of winning games

in the NFL and he's got experience and he can get the ball to Jefferson in a tighter window or with a little more anticipation or just a little better of a read, a little quicker snap to release. I think that JJ has struggled with a lot of that. that there's a the plays are designed to go to jefferson and if only three of them end up going to jefferson something's gone pretty wrong uh let's see uh x large something i'm sorry sometimes your names uh they gave uh j j for your contract they should use him for four years oh well yeah i mean oh i see what you mean a four-year contract.

Yeah. Well, that's right. The rookie contract is relevant to this. It is relevant. And that's why you have to find out as much as you can. Where the problem is is that everybody in the organization expected to be playing in January. When they started this season, they were thinking, we got to prove we can win in the playoffs. We had this discussion.

O'Connell's got to prove he can win in the playoffs. And that's where it might get muddy if Wents plays really well these next next few weeks. And then you're going to say, you've got to do everything you can to get in the playoffs. It isn't developmental. It isn't, it doesn't come down to just maximizing the rookie quarterback contract as much as you want to. But it just has to do a lot with this year getting the playoffs and who's going to give you the best chance to win. And that's what Kevin O'Connell is going to make the decision on going forward. He's going to make the decision on a weekly basis on who gives him the best chance to win that week. That's how you have to

to do it under this scenario. If they were the giants, I'd say play Jay McCarthy no matter what. KFT says there was a good article on McCarthy's tendency to throw to the right, which he does 62% of the time, cause the Falcons to rotate their coverage and clamp down on the right. See, things like that are to me, you just have to keep coming back to an experience. And he, I think, did this in college, right, where his accuracy to the left was not the same is the right. There were a few interceptions through training camp and mini camp where I believe we talked about it at one point. Like, it's the same sort of, the pick six was the same sort of throw that he kind of, when he was throwing to the left, really telegraphed. And I know that

people broke that down and said it wasn't necessarily his fault. But, you know, we had kind of seen that a few times that even in college, he was more comfortable throwing to one direction. But that, like, this is what young players do. Young players hold on to the ball too much. They telegraph their passes too much. They don't use their eyes to move defenders too much and you can work through it as teams have done with Brock Purdy and C.J. Stroud and Jared Gough a few years ago and you know, and so forth. But it takes, you got to block. You have to run. You have to get a touchdown on first and two. Like the margin for error is just a little bit lower when you have some limitations. also he's only thrown what 40 something passes so far they just have you know

when it comes to throw into the left and right you throw two passes to the left or something it's going to get closer to 50% um so i don't know if i want to say that's completely a thing but it probably is it probably is um outlined man says derisaw practicing in full means absolutely nothing i'll believe he's in there when they see it well he's going to play eventually I mean, when you say, I'll believe it when I see it. I mean, he'll definitely play again in the NFL. I'm pretty sure of that. I don't think we've reached, like, sound of the alarms on Christian Derasaw.

What ended up happening was he got ahead of schedule, it seemed, to get back in minicamp. And reasonably so, I think we all started saying, like, okay, like, what does this mean? Does this mean he can actually get back for week one? and the fact that he was practicing by the end of camp, we started to look at that and say, well, shouldn't he be out there? Shouldn't he be out there? But when you go back and look at T.J. Hawkinson

and his timeline for his ACL and how long it took, it's right around now for getting back. And they were cautious with that one too. So you'll see it eventually. It's just no one can promise you when. And it does matter he's practicing in full. It absolutely matters that he's practicing in full. Because if he wasn't, then I would be saying,

all right, what the heck is going on? Jarrell says, why don't we put any pressure on KOC like we put on these players? Do you think he's part of the problem? No, I don't think he's part of the problem. The reason why Kevin O'Connell gets the benefit of the doubt is because you remember that fish from that movie that forgot everything, the minute that something else happened, dory i think what is the movie finding nemo um that's football fans that's football media a lot of the time the minute something else happens it's like oh yeah that what there nothing happened

before chaos is the problem it's like whoa hey whoa i think there's reasonable critiques of kevin o'connell and something that i'd like to know couldn't get in there today with the question but you know i'll keep trying uh with coming off a loss like that that, I am curious about how he assesses himself because he talks about him being responsible as well, I am curious about, you know, when he looks in the mirror and says, you know, why didn't I run Jordan Mason at the one yard line, right? Or if, you know, he's so confident, which you have to be to be an NFL head coach, that he does think he's got the answers. I'm not really sure. He's always said, I'm looking inward, but we've kind of seen a lot of the same trends. At the same time,

that's only trends when things go wrong. And they haven't gone wrong. much. I mean, 2003, they're over 500 with Dobbs, and they got back to 500 and fought back with cousins. Cousins played very well in two seasons. Darnold was spectacular last year. Like, the man has earned a lot of cachet and the coach of the year to be able to say, like, we have a sample size. If this was the first year he was coaching and it was a Ben Johnson situation,

I think we would be like, this guy knows what he's doing. But we have a sample size to know. He knows what he's doing. And when you look at the things that we have tangibly, the NFL players survey, they put them at the very top, they give him the highest grade. They don't have to do that. Pittsburgh players didn't give Mike Tom on that grade. They don't have to do that.

It's an anonymous survey. So when you have the respect of the players, you have a ton of wins in the regular season, but also you have your flaws that we're going to talk about. And we have a lot after games and when there's mistakes made and so. forth. We'll break them down. But we shouldn't lose the forest through the trees. We shouldn't be dory and just forget in Chicago. Coming out of Chicago, I thought, what a great coaching job coming out of Chicago. Managing McCarthy on the sideline. Like, well done. Keeping everybody calm and focused in that game, keeping your young quarterback on track. Like, great job.

Call the great second half. Got guys open for McCarthy. And then it's a bad game. And why aren't we blaming the coach for everything? Well, you know, the coaches won a lot. So he's going to get that. That doesn't mean he's perfect. It just means that, you know, when you take Sam Darnold to the point that they did, it says a lot about who you are as a coach. But I also think it wouldn't be football if after every loss, we didn't just say F the coach.

Because that's what they do everywhere. I'll give you a great example of this. How about Ohio State Michigan last year? Remember how Ohio State won the national championship? The number of Ohio State fans that I saw on the interwebs, who wanted Ryan Day fired. It's the worst coach ever. He should never step foot back in the state of Ohio ever again

because he lost one game and then he wins the national championship. I don't know. Remember when Andy Reid in Philadelphia was such a bum because he kept getting to the NFC championship and couldn't get over the hump and then gets a different quarterback, wins a bunch of Super Bowls? Belichick was a loser in Cleveland. I don't know. I think we need to be a little bit more,

maybe analytical about it than emotional when it comes to evaluating coaches. Because I think that the emotion of this week of the disappointment of McCarthy being hurt and the just horrendous nature of that game coming off of the bad taste and everyone's mouth after last year has probably pointed some arrows in the wrong directions. That doesn't mean, again, doesn't mean he's perfect. We've gone through all the details there. But when people say to, you know, just last week, I said to Robert Mays, so this is not me.

This is a guy who covers the whole league. In fact, he's a Bears fan. And I said, if they did an all-coach draft, where would you have KOC? And he said, top five. I mean, I think that they're in a very good spot with the head coach position. And warts in all, there will be some shortcomings. But you go around the league, like, you're in a good spot with the coach. You're in a good spot for this coach to guide them through this decision.

You're in a good spot with the coach to guide J.J. McCarthy into getting better at football. and giving him the best chance to succeed. Is he going to make a stupid play call from time to time? Yes, he will. Yes, he will. So that's, that is where I stand on that. When I see the, you know, the comments that, you know, they should, he's not good enough and this and that.

Like, you're just not going to convince. You don't have the evidence. You don't have the evidence. This is an evidence-based show. You're going to have to have the evidence there. Mama says, do we think Wence is going to go for 300 and three or four touchdowns. I don't know about that.

I don't know about that. Where does, curious, speak of evidence, curious where the Cincinnati Bengals are ranked, seventh best graded defense by PFF so far, but they did play two bad teams. I don't have a lot of belief in Jacksonville, so that he did play two bad teams.

Hey, if you haven't answered that Fandul question the day, feel free to do that. Over under is 41.5 points on Fanduil. How many does Wentz have to score to win the game? That's the question. I don't think he has to go for 304 touchdowns. That would be a lot to ask. Peters is 37.

You're not trusting the defense there. Rent 509 now 27 points. But he can't. I probably can set up a buddy cam. Maybe I should do that. He's just laying here now. He got all excited, but he's just laying here now. Now, maybe I, maybe I can.

Maybe I can set up another camera to point down to him. He's just laying on the floor. Just taking a snooze. As he does. A buddy needs a purple insider shirt. We should get him that like a little jacket. I'm not, I'm not a dress-as-up the dog guy, though. He's got a rain jacket, and he really doesn't like the rain, so he has that.

But he's not, he's not, like, going to get dressed up for Halloween or something. Maybe he has a race car because he's so fast. Hayden, can you give a quick recap for those of us just getting here? Of, you mean the injury report and such? The good news was Van Ginkle back, Christian Darrasaw practicing in full, Jeff Okuda practicing in full. The bad news, of course, is no Ryan Kelly, no J.J. McCarthy, and that Harrison Smith is still limited.

That's kind of the quick rundown there. And then we talked about a lot of other stuff. Jarrell says, what's your take on KOC as a play caller? I think the play calling analysis is the hardest thing to figure out in football. Because if you go through all of them, you have to go through the logic of the call, not the result. So does it make sense on third and one at that point in the game when you're down 15 to 6 to take a shot to Jalen Naylor? Oh, it absolutely does. Because your win probability is probably 5% at that point.

But if you hit that shot and he scores an 80-yard touchdown, well, hell yeah. like you're back in the game so that's a great play call uh you call a play in the end zone or at the two yard line where yes i thought they should have gone to jordan mason but my gosh your quarterback should take a snap and throw it to a wide open guy in the end zone there's plays all over the field that were missed for whatever reason what's the play call that says left tackle gets beat immediately and quarterback gets killed you know there were guys there were guys open there were opportunities to win this game but there's also five plays in the game where i go i don't know if that's helping. I don't know if going empty is helping there in this situation with the way

that McCarthy was playing. So my take on it is the overall results of the first three years have been a lot of explosive plays, a lot of success throwing the football. The run game has never been good to me and still isn't. Even with as much as we like Jordan Mason, still has been a great running game in the first two weeks, not one that is dominated and not one that you know that you've seen other teams really feel the running game outside of one quarter for Chicago. So there's blind spots and there's also some big upside to the play calling. But where it's really shined though, and I know it didn't in this last fourth quarter, but his quarterbacks have been very good and very successful at winning games of the fourth quarter

and being confident and finding receivers at the end of halves winning in those moments like we've seen the last two weeks. I mean, I would put. O'Connell for his ability to get receivers, the football, his ability for his quarterbacks to find them on time, have the right reads. I would put it all very high. But the problems that have persisted with this team have not been fully resolved in two weeks. Oh, there are other things that we're going to be watching.

Can Wentz have himself, a Russell Wilson 450-yard game? That was one of the weirdest games I've ever seen, man. One of the weirdest games I have ever seen. Kurt says offensive genius Billick or KOC. Hot take. I don't think anybody's a genius. I don't think anyone's a genius. I think that there are coaches in the league who are better or worse at understanding what maximizes quarterbacks.

And I think that it is a players league. So if you have Justin Jefferson, you're better at your job. I don't think anyone's a genius, not in football. I think there's geniuses who invent stuff that's like a cell phone or how we're live Whoever invented the way that I'm live streaming right now, that person is a genius. Football, I don't know. Football, it's a lot of space, timing, coaching details, and then having really good players to execute it. Because if Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, you know, you've even seen it.

You've even seen it. How genius is KOC without Christian Derasaw in there? less, less, as everybody would be, as every coach should know at all times, that it has a lot to do with who your players are. And we've seen that. Billick, though, he was a great coach, I think. Also had Randy Moss. Hey, his play call is crazy. Go long. Go long. Randy Moss. Crazy play calls. I'm sure it was more complicated than that. But, you know, that's exactly what I mean.